Hall of Fame snubs: How Randy Gradishar and Louis Wright became Broncos

Before the weather turned foul Saturday night, Broncos broadcaster and former NFL end Dave Logan — who helped me set a Jefferson County League record for passed balls when we were Wheat Ridge High School teammates — interviewed former Broncos great Randy Gradishar on the field and on the new video screen.

Gradishar should have been in Canton.

Another induction ceremony took place Saturday without Gradishar and Louis Wright, the two members of the Orange Crush defense who belong in the Hall of Fame, included among the previous inductees in attendance, or even among those being belatedly honored.

Louis Wright in 1977

They both became Broncos because of the talent judgment savvy displayed by, primarily, John Ralston, and other members of the Broncos organization in the early 1970s.

Gradishar had knee surgery after his junior season at Ohio State, then had a strong senior year playing for Woody Hayes and seemed ticketed to go high in the first round of the 1974 draft.

The Colts (picking fifth) had their orthopedic surgeon look at Gradishar’s knee and he pronounced it fine. “Then the Detroit Lions’ trainer calls and says he’s going to be in town (Columbus) and said to come down, he’d meet me in the training room,” Gradishar told me. “This is a couple of weeks before the draft. We’re in the training room and he’s doing his knee evaluation and he pulled it out this way and he says, ‘Whoa! What’s wrong with that?’ I said, ‘Nothing.’ He said, ‘OK.'”

A few days later, Gradishar’s lawyer called and told him the Lions’ trainer was putting out the word that his knee was shot.

Next, Ralston called Gradishar directly. The Broncos were picking 14th. Gradishar recalls Ralston saying, “We heard that Baltimore looked at you and Detroit looked at you, but that you may be available in the first round for us.”

Gradishar declined to go to Denver to be examined, saying he didn’t know what the Lions had seen. In fact, his knee was just “loose,” and it had little or nothing to do with his previous injury. Gradishar told Ralston to call Woody Hayes, and that the coach would vouch for the fact that the knee hadn’t been a problem after his surgery. So Ralston did that and also talked to the Buckeyes’ team surgeon.

“I talked at great length with Woody Hayes,” Ralston told me. “I knew Woody very well because we (Stanford) had played against them in the Rose Bowl. Woody said, ‘He’ll play 10 years in the National Football League and he’ll be the best player you’ve got.’ And he was right.”

The Bears took defensive back Waymond Bryant at No. 4. The Colts took defensive end John Dutton at No. 5. The Lions took linebacker Ed O’Neil at No. 8. The Saints even took Gradishar’s Ohio State teammate and fellow linebacker Rick Middleton at No. 13. Denver was up, and all the whispers were about this linebacker falling out of the top 10 because of his knee, and how anybody taking him that high would be taking a huge risk.

Ralston did it, anyway.

Gradishar was one of the best short-yardage linebackers of all time, was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1978, and played 10 seasons for the Broncos.

He belongs in the Hall.

So does Wright, who is punished because he was so unassuming in his 12-season career before retiring close to, or maybe still at, the top of his game. All he did was usually be assigned man-to-man to the other team’s top receiver and placed on an island, while the other 10 members of the Orange Crush went about their business.

Wright had started out at Arizona State, but the gist of a long story was that Frank Kush — the same Frank Kush who became the Baltimore coach and was the reason John and Jack Elway didn’t want any part of the Colts — turned him off and he transferred to his hometown Bakersfield Junior College after his freshman year. Then he went to San Jose State, but as a track sprinter who thought his football career was over. Spartans assistant coach Jim Colbert talked him into giving football another try, though.

Wright was considered a prospect, but he was stunned — absolutely stunned — when the Broncos took him with the 17th pick of the first round in 1975.